


[GAME OVER] Restart!

by joonbuggiez



Series: SuperMANKAI [1]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Betrayal, Bullying, Chikage is a BITCH /lh, Gen, Guns, Mind Manipulation, Origin Story, Retelling, Spoilers for Knight of Round IV Stage Event, Temporary Character Death, Video Game Mechanics, no beta readers we die like nachi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:29:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28954239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joonbuggiez/pseuds/joonbuggiez
Summary: Itaru was only 14 when he was told that he should change his entire personality— being someone with no powers, not in this world where every other person had it— he just and went to agree with it. He'd gain acquaintances, but never friends.He meets Tonooka.He leaves Tonooka...... he doesn't want to be alone, not with his newfound powers.He wants to be his own protagonist.
Series: SuperMANKAI [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123721
Kudos: 10





	[GAME OVER] Restart!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! Please make sure to read the content warnings up above!! This is set in me and @henriddas_quill 's SuperMANKAI au! ! ! She's helping me a fuck ton with it and also shes curbing my angst just a little bit with her sweetness,, please send her some love!!

Itaru takes a deep breath, steeling his nerves while murmuring a quiet mantra to himself.

“You can do it, Itaru. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Just… pop off. There’s nothing wrong with having no powers when you’re in highschool. Just… be yourself.” 

The 14-year-old murmurs to himself. His first year of junior highschool was going to start the following month. Most kids his age already had a power for themselves— it manifested by the time boys and girls had hit puberty. His never came. Puberty may have got him in the ass early— and fuck did he hate it— but it… never arrived.

His sister, on the other hand, had manifested powers. He’d at least had noticed that much. There was always a slight pause before she would state her opinion, and she’d see her pink eyes— or, well, pinker than usual eyes— flitting up and down, as if she was physically considering her choices.

She’d never tell him what her power was, but Itaru has always chalked it up to something that was in those otome games. Given a few choices, and it’s up to you what would be taken best by the one you’re talking to.

Itaru wishes he had something even half as useful as that— but he’s always had the short end of the stick. In birth, in stature, in hobbies, in literally everything. It was just his luck that everyone loved bullying the living daylights out of it.

He swallows thickly before pressing his fists onto the mirror and bonks his forehead slightly on it. “This is no use…” He murmurs thickly to himself as he slides down. He stares at his face— his god-forsaken face— and his face twists into a grimace.

Disgusting. His bags were way too deep, his eyes were too pink, his skin to sickly, how rosy his cheeks can get, how his eyelashes were too long and thick—

He tries to shake himself out of these thoughts. No use dwelling in this, no? Gwen wouldn’t like it, and he refuses to disappoint her.

“Itaru,” His sister’s voice cuts into his head. His heart thumps loudly from the suddenes and he turns around to face her. “What are you doing? You’re looking extra pathetic right now. You know what— I won’t ask. Just.” She fixes the paper in her hands before handing it over to him. “Read this.”

He pushes his glasses up slightly before looking at the paper. He scans it for a little moment. It… was extremely detailed. “Is this a character sheet, aneki?” He asks her, flipping over the pages. “It’s really detailed…”

“It’s my list for how you should act in highschool. This way, you won’t get picked on for being so frail and weak.” She sighs. “We’re going to fix everything about you.”

Itaru’s heart aches but he weakly nods, not wanting to argue with his older sister. “Alright, aneki.”

“It’s onee-san.” She flicks her finger on his forehead and Itaru hisses.

Highschool hasn’t even started yet, and Itaru decides he already hates this with a burning passion. It was grammar and language lessons at first. Make his language all formal and shit like that— he hated it, in all honesty. It felt heavy on his tongue, but he eventually perfects it. And then it was with his mannerisms. Gone was the anxious leg-bouncing, gone was the biting his lip, gone was his habit of cracking his knuckles.

He feels antsier and antsier the longer he keeps this up. “Anek—” He pauses for only a split second. “Onee-san, can I go to the arcade—” He starts, chest tight from not having any ounce of freedom within the past two weeks.

“Of course not. You can’t keep up the image of being a sickly and frail young man if you’re cursing up a storm in public! Besides, you have a hair appointment and a makeup lesson right afterward.”

Itaru inwardly cringes. “Why? My hair’s nice.” He argues, running his fingers in his uneven hair. He had cut it himself just a few weeks back. He thinks he did an amazing job, considering that it actually looks and feels right. “And you know I don’t ever want to put on makeup, a-onee-san. It- it feels bad.” He argues.

“Your hair literally looks like a bird nest, Itaru. You’ll thank me in the future for this. I’m trying to look out for you.” Her voice was sharp, but there were no indications of lying. 

Talk about familial bonds, huh?

“Yes, onee-san,” He nods a little bit. “I’ll… I’ll do it.” He murmurs, voice quiet and downcast.

“That’s the spirit.” She sighs and cups his cheeks. “I just don’t want to see you bullied anymore, Itaru. You’re going to a new school, so you have chances to build yourself up and be a better person than you were before.”

Itaru feels discontentment in his chest. He takes a deep breath and nods in order to appease his sister. “Thank you, onee-san.” He pushes himself back up. “I’ll get to that appointment, then.”

“That’s good, Itaru.”

Itaru comes back and he feels more sick of himself than he already was. He looked _feminine_ , of all things. It made his chest twist and turn— but he wishes not to dwell on it.

He’ll be playing KniRoun until he feels better.

That’s all he needs.

Time passes by quickly in his first few weeks of highschool. It’s as his sister told him— everyone was fawning over his new sickly persona. They pampered him, and cared for him. It makes him feel terrible that he has to put up a guise of frailty to even be liked— there was nothing wrong with games, there was nothing wrong with his personality.

Yet, everything was wrong with him.

Sure, he was gaining friends— but at what cost? He was just growing more and more tired of not being himself. He’s growing tired, he’s sick of people babying him because of his ‘condition’, and because of his lack of powers.

They’re treating him like a civilian, when he’s aware he’s the protagonist of his own story. He will have his own spotlight one day… but highschool probably was not going to be that time.

“Is that a limited edition KniRoun keychain?” He hears a voice behind him and his pink eyes lock onto the other’s. The corner of Itaru’s lips quirk down slightly before he tries to offer up a polite smile. 

“Ah, is it? I just thought it looked cute…” He trails off quietly and looks away from the other teen.

“Ah- really? These are really rare— I’m surprised you don’t know what it was!”  
  


Itaru’s eyes light up slightly. “You… you’re actually into KniRoun?” He asks him, voice wavering as he looks around.

“I— yeah?” He nods a little bit. “Don’t out me to anyone but— who doesn’t love KniRoun IV?”

Itaru feels like… he feels like this will be the start of an amazing friendship. 

And that it was— up to his third year, they were as close as close can be. Gaming after class together, talking avidly about their interest, and talking about the specific lore for each and every character… Itaru has to say that he has a deep admiration for Tonooka. Instead of keeping to a frail persona, he continues pushing himself to be someone people can look up to—

Someone Itaru looks up to.

Itaru gets excited each and every time he sees Tonooka in class— he’s even been helping the former break out of his shell. Okay, admittedly it was a conversation about KniRoun VII, but it was still something. He may have let his persona slip here and there, even egging Tonooka to join the conversation.

Seeing the look of disgust on his face makes Itaru’s heart stop — but class starts and he can’t talk to Tonooka during it. He tries to come after his friend right after class, but he says he has something to do.

“That guy’s a legit nerd, you see.” He hears Tonooka’s voice near the gates and his heart drops. “He’s been lying about his illness just so he can get out of PE. Pathetic, right?”

“Is that what you think of me, Tono?” Itaru’s voice cracks as he catches the attention of his— his ‘friend’ and his friends. “Do you really think I’m pathetic?”

“Chiga? Wait—” Tonooka tries to amend things. He tries coming after Itaru, but Itaru has already started walking away. Even if he wasn’t athletic, he was a pretty fast speed walker. “Chiga, I didn’t mean that— CHIGA WAIT THERE’S A—”

Itaru doesn’t hear the rest of the sentence. He feels pain shoot up on his entire left side before he passes out.

…

Why was it so dark and cold…?

**>... **

A bright light flashes right in front of him.

**> GAME OVER. DO YOU WISH TO RESTART?**

Huh? Game… over? What happened?

**> DO YOU WISH TO RESTART?**

**> Yes. >No. >Other.**

Did… did he die? 

**> DO YOU WISH TO RESTART?**

**> Yes. >No. >Other.**

Itaru is unsure of what was going on, so he presses “other”.

**> OTHER. Which action do you want to take?**

**> Replay. >Summary of the day. >Routes.**

Itaru feels something settle in his stomach— none of which was good. He felt paralyzed in his spot. The only thing he could hear was the quiet ‘beep, beep, beep’ from the screen in front of him.

**> Replay.**

He sees the front of the gates in his school again. He sees Tonooka— he hears Tonooka say the same words. Dread fills his chest and he wants to speak up— only to see himself, whose eyes widen and utter the same words he did just a few moments ago. He sees himself storm away and onto the road. 

Oh. That’s a car, ain’t it.

He grimaces and turns away from the sight that was about to be his body but the scene ends.

**> DO YOU WISH TO RESTART?**

**> Yes. >No. >Other.**

Itaru’s surprised by the beeping and his hand hovers over the second option for a little while. But he can’t settle on that, not when he thinks Tonooka thinks of him in that way.

**> Yes.**

**> Good morning, Itaru.**

He takes in the breath he didn’t know he was missing and he clutched at his body tightly. He quickly scrambles to his phone to check the date— and it was still… today. 

“A checkpoint system… is that my power?” He murmurs quietly to himself. “It’s… nice to know that I have more than a second chance… but what’s the limit?”  
  


“Itaru! You’re going to be late for school if you don’t start prettying up now!”

“A-ah, yes, onee-san!” He stammers, not having much time to think about it on his own.

“I can’t believe he said that,” He hears his own voice murmur right beside him. His heart stops for a few moments and he glances to the side while he’s getting dressed.

Ouch. That was… that was him, body mangled beyond repair. His eyes were dull and broken, like he’d just had his soul get sucked out— or, well, he was a zombie. Itaru can’t fault… his other self.

“Why are you here?” He asks weakly to the other Itaru, not wanting his sister to hear.

“I don’t know.” The ghost admits and rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t want to be here. I can’t even touch anything. I can’t destress from Tonooka’s— betrayal.” 

The other him was distraught. A huge contrast to the fact that he was casually buttoning his own shirt up. “I’m… I’m going to talk to him before class today. I want to clear it up with him.”

“Please.” The ghost wails quietly. “I can’t… I refuse to believe my only friend thinks I’m pathetic.” 

“If you keep acting like that, then I can perfectly see why he would…” Itaru sighs before going out the door and grabbing some food. “Time to talk to Tonooka…”

And they meet up during lunch, before the conversation about KniRoun VII could start. They meet up at the rooftop, with only each other’s company.

“... say, Tono.” He murmurs, hyper aware of his ghost self’s gaze at the back of his head. “You… what do you really think about me?” He glances over at his friend with a sharpness that has only ever met the screen.

“Huh? Chiga, where’s this coming from?”

“I’m just… curious, I guess.”

There was a moment of silence before Tonooka slings his arm around Itaru’s shoulders. “You’re my best friend, Chiga— I think—”

“Are you sure you don’t think I’m pathetic, Tono?” He cuts in, pushing off the other’s arm. “I’ve heard from someone that you’d do anything to keep your reputation clean, even at the expense of others.”

Tonooka’s eyes widen at the accusation. “Chiga, I’d never do anything that’d hurt you—”

“Or your reputation.” He argues, echoing his ghost’s words. “You’d throw anyone under the bus just to keep your reputation safe.” 

Somehow, Itaru can smell something burning. He can feel the air thicken around him while the air grows pungent.

“I— shut up! I wouldn’t— I wouldn’t do that to you, Chiga!”

Itaru’s heart twists upon seeing Tonooka like this, but his fists clenched even harder. “It happened already. I saw it happen.”

“Bullshit, there’s no way you’d kn- there's no way you’d see that unless you were actively looking for it and— and you’re flaunting your insane amount of money around looking for someone who has clairvoyance or someth—”

Itaru doesn’t hear the end of Tonooka’s sentence. He realizes how dumb it was to provoke someone with actual powers. He realizes why the smell of ozone was so familiar to him.

He hears a crackle of thunder before he gets struck.

“Ch-chiga!” Everything was too muffled. He can’t hear anything, other than the loud ringing in his ears. “Fuck- I- fuck where do I put the body…!” But Tonooka’s voice was only growing weaker and weaker.

Cold.

Dark.

**> DO YOU WISH TO RESTART?**

**> Yes. >No. >Other.**

Itaru doesn’t hesitate this time to say yes.

He wakes up. He sees another version of him floating with the first one. He grimaces at the intensity of the burn marks on the third him’s body. 

“Tonooka really went all out,” Threetaru murmurs quietly. “We have to be careful this time. We’re approaching one of the usual caps of lives used.” 

Twotaru sighs slightly and nods. “That’s true. Don’t want to get spawnkilled or backstabbed again. I say we leave it be. I don’t want another game over, orz.”

Itaru grimaces slightly. “If we let that happen, Tono’s just going to take advantage of our situation again.”

“We don’t have to keep up our social link with him. He’s already reversed. We’ve been stabbed in the back twice, they might say the third time’s the charm, but I’m really not keen on seeing myself die again.” Twotaru murmurs and crosses his arms. “It makes me— us— into a huge noob. Dislike.”

“That’s true… let’s just… let him do whatever he wants.” Threetaru murmurs solemnly. “... if he really thinks we’re pathetic, let him be. I don’t want to be friends with someone’s whose first thoughts, upon straight up killing a real life person, is _where he should hide the body_.”

Itaru stays silent for a little while before nodding quietly. “You’re right…” His heart aches but they’re right. He stands up from his bed and tries to get ready for school but he’s not as into it anymore. The only thing he looked forward to was meeting up with Tonooka and that shit’s gone now. 

He thinks about how similar this is to his childhood imaginary friend— Gwen, from KniRoun IV— who had disappeared when Tonooka and he became close friends… his heart aches slightly, when he realizes it was just like getting his own imaginary friend again. Except now, it’s with his dead selves. This… he feels like he’s read something like this before.

School… goes by like the first day it went. KniRoun VII, Tonooka looking at him with disgust…

“That guy’s a legit nerd, you see.” He hears again. He wishes he doesn’t. “He’s been lying about his illness just so he can get out of PE. Pathetic, right?”

“I’d never have guessed…”

“Is that Chigasaki?”

Itaru decides to push past through them, hiking his bag up on his back.

“Chiga— wait!” He walks faster, but Tonookay catches up to him, putting his hand on his shoulder.

“- hrgh.” Itaru huffs out and stares at Tonooka with a disappointed look. He feels numb, knowing that this guy only used him for his own gains.

“—You can leak out my hobbies to them too, I don’t care. I just want to keep being friends with you.” Tonooka’s voice was pleading, yet Itaru can’t find himself to believe it, even if he wanted to.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to cause a shitfest in this school.” Itaru sighs quietly and pushes Tonooka’s hand away. “I don’t care. I’ve moved on from it.”

“H-huh?” Tonooka sputters out, the look of shock on his face was a sight to behold.

“I know what type of person you are, Tonooka. And I know what type of person I am. So… just… leave me alone.” He sighs before going and walking back to his place.

“Chiga-”

But Itaru decided not to listen anymore. He didn’t want that in his life.

Goodbye to his only friend, he guesses.

…

This was so troublesome.

…

God, he hates being so lonely like this. Is this what companionship does to a person? It makes them yearn for more, it leaves a person with an insatiable thirst to be accompanied by anyone, by someone who’d just listen.

He wishes he’d never had someone to trust in the first place, maybe then he wouldn’t have hoped that he’d have something more.

He eventually finishes university… he finds a job that supports him. He finally doesn’t live with his sister anymore— that gives him a breath of freedom, but… not by much. Now he’s just painfully aware of what he can do— getting involved in accidents, getting involved in shady businesses, only to meet his cruel end and to wake up the next day with information he has.

Of course, none of this information was things he’d ever need. Not really, no. Does he know how to pole dance now? Yes, yes he does, but he has no idea where he would ever use this knowledge. Has he learned French and German for literally no reason at all? Yeah, that too. Why would he ever need this language? Does he know how to escape zip ties, duct tape, and ropes? Yeah, he doesn’t even remember how he got to any of those situations, but he sure did learn about how to get the fuck out of them. He might also know how to hold a gun due to that one incident but- he’d rather not think about that.

Well… at least, he didn’t think he needed this information until he actually talks to one of his senpais—

Or, rather, see what his senpai was doing in his off-time.

Itaru had just been on his way to the parking lot of his building when he hears a quiet ‘ _pchoot!_ ’ and glass shattering. The hair on the nape of his neck stands up and he hides behind a column.

It takes a few moments to realize that Utsuki-senpai was speaking in German. Huh, that’s a wonderful coincidence that Itaru had been learning that these past few years.

“ _Ah, did you really think that you could get away with this_?” Utsuki murmurs lowly to someone. “ _I know you were working with_ December, _it’s best you just give in now and tell me where he’s hiding_.”

What the fuck was his senpai prattling on about?

He’s quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he hears a gun being cocked. There was a lot of resistance from the other man, saying that he doesn’t even know this ‘December’ person was.

_Pchoot_.

He hears a body slump down to the floor. He feels something worm up in his stomach and he gags slightly. He freezes up when he hears the gun be cocked again.

“Who’s there?” Utsuki’s voice calls out. Itaru tries to keep as still as possible, hoping that the other doesn’t hear him. He needs to tell his boss about it— “Ah, gotcha. I can’t believe Chigasaki, of all people, is the one to catch me.” His hand was right on the brunet’s shoulder, his voice dangerously low and close to his ear.

Itaru freezes, and the next thing he knows is that there’s a gun pointed at the side of his head.

“Don’t worry about it, Chigasaki. This gun is 100% painless. I’m sure a masochist like you will enjoy being shot in the head, yeah?”

Itaru doesn’t know why, but he’s compelled to agree with it. One moment passes, another one passes. That’s right. He’d like this. “Yeah, s—”

_Pcho_ -

His head is ringing.

It’s dark.

It’s cold.

Did he like that?

**> DO YOU WISH TO RESTART?**

**> Yes. >No. >Other.**

Yes.

He doesn’t hesitate to choose yes, but this time, he decides to steer clear of the parking lot during those hours.

Itaru’s head was fuzzy from the happenings from the last save. It was Utsuki-senpai… and he had a gun. He had shot him.

Pause. One. Two.

Right. There was another gun pointed at his head. That’s fantastic. He gets goosebumps just thinking about it, and he feels his heart race. This isn’t fear. It’s ecstasy.

Admittedly, though, as terrible as his other saves were, this one was the most terrifying— the most thrilling. Utsuki was one of his co-workers, and he was most obviously not what he thought him out to be. 

He clutches at his heart, murmuring a ‘Be still my throbbing heart.’ For a moment, he forgets that Twotaru would be here.

“Is it just senpai, or did getting shot by guns seem more exhilarating than it usually does?” His ghost asks, a small frown on his face.

“I don’t even want to talk about it. I really don’t.”

So Itaru goes by his day as he usually would, sneaking glances at the guy who had literally killed him. But— he tries his best not to rouse any suspicion.

He can still remember the feeling of the cold barrel at the side of his head. He remembers the feeling of the bullet entering his head.

He wants to stop remembering it but it won’t leave his head. 

“Senpai’s just left… let’s wait maybe an hour more before you go to the parking lot, yeah?” Twotaru murmurs.

“... checks out.” He nods slightly before continuing to do more work.

The day passes by uneventfully, which leaves a hole in Itaru’s heart, but he can’t do anything about it. It’d be stupid to actively seek out danger… wouldn’t it?

…

Yet, he’s still looking at the paper for superhero companies that would take him, that wouldn’t need him constantly, just so he could have some of the thrill of danger in his life. Just so he can have his own free room in his off time.

He sighs because that’s not a very common thing to hand out to newbies, especially inexperienced ones like he is, but a man can hope.

Right now, he's just waiting... and waiting. He knows something's about to happen in this area. He remembers the news later into the day the first time he went through this day.

He hears the quiet ' _brrrrrrr_ ' from way above him. That's right, that's right... there was cargo that becomes loose, if he remembers correctly.

He hears the bustling laughter of a few people.

The fast whistling of something falling.

"Ah! Look out!" He calls out and then quickly moves to pull away the group from underneath the crate falling down. Itaru's heart was thumping loudly but he felt giddy like this. He's glad to have saved these people, yes—

But that was entirely thrilling on its own. He barely hears what the group was saying until he hears a, "Would you like to join MANKAI Company?"

It seems like things were turning his way, wasn't it?  
  
  
"Ah, tell me all about it, then." He smiles at them.

**Author's Note:**

> anyways yes its heavily implied that itaru is trans and gay and he is in this au no i am not joking


End file.
